As integrated circuit (IC) complexity increases, the size of devices within the IC must decrease. To decrease the size of a device, the various elements of a device must be reduced proportionately. This is known as device sealing. In one type of device, a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structure, device scaling requires that the oxide layer be made thinner. Unfortunately, as conventional oxides are made thinner (scaled), their quality tends to degrade. The degradation in oxide quality tends to adversely impact the reliability of a device using the oxide.
In addition to oxide quality, the reliability of the dielectric material in a MOS structure may be affected by oxide stress and the planarity of the oxide-substrate interface. Oxide stress can result from lattice mismatch and growth induced stress. Lattice mismatch is difficult to overcome and growth stress has been addressed in a variety of ways with mixed results. Stress in the oxide may lead to dislocations and defects especially in the interfacial region. This may result in mass transport paths and leakage current.
The reliability of a device is characterized by a few conventional criteria. For example, in a MOS transistor reliability may be characterized in terms of the change in conventional device parameters over time (known as device parameter drift). Additionally, time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) may be used to characterize reliability of transistor.
Under operating bias (applied voltage) and temperature conditions, device parameters such as threshold voltage (V1), saturation current (IDSAT) and transconductance (gm) tend to drift to unacceptable values. In fact, the drift in device parameters during normal operation is thought to be more problematic than other known reliability problems, such as dielectric breakdown of the oxide. Accordingly, in some cases, device parameter drift can cause a device to fail well before dielectric breakdown occurs.
In order to address the reliability issues discussed above, a variety of approaches have been tried. For example, it is known that the best oxides for many IC devices are grown rather than deposited oxides. Furthermore, the higher growth temperatures may yield a better quality oxide. Unfortunately, there are problems associated with fabricating oxides at high temperatures by conventional techniques. For example, in achieving the high temperatures required in the high temperature oxide growth sequence, the overall thickness of the oxide grown tends to increase. As a result the oxide may be too thick for a reduced dimension device. Thus, in the effort to fabricate a better equality oxide, device scaling objectives may be defeated. Moreover, when cooling down from the high growth temperatures, the viscosity of the grown oxide increases and growth induced stress may result. Given these issues, it is customary in the semiconductor industry to grow oxides at low temperatures. The drawback to this practice is that by growing oxide at lower temperatures, the oxide quality may be compromised. This reduction in quality adversely impacts reliability of the oxide for reasons discussed above.
What is needed, therefore, is a process for fabricating ultra-thin oxides which overcomes the problems described above.